Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Police in Saskatchewan say the death of an Oshawa man was likely caused by a wolf attack. RCMP spokeswoman Heather Russell said 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie died Tuesday evening while out walking near a mining camp in northern Saskatchewan. “Our understanding is he said he was going out for a walk, and said he would be back around 5 o’clock,” she said. While Mounties in Saskatchewan are still investigating the incident, it appears to have been an attack, Ms. Russell said. “There’s no evidence to the contrary,” she said. “All of the injuries (examined) at autopsy were consistent with animals (attacking).” Wolves had been seen in the area and tracks consistent with wolves or dogs were found, Ms. Russell said. Ms. Russell said that while the incidents of wolves attacking humans are rare, they are not unheard of in the province. “Last January there was a man at a mine in the same general area who was attacked,” she said. That man managed to fight the wolves off with assistance from others, Ms. Russell said....

Tests are being done on two wolves killed in the Wollaston Lake area – the same area where the body of an Ontario man was found last week following a suspected attack by animals. According to the Canadian Press, Saskatchewan conservation officers shot the animals and sent the carcasses to Saskatoon to determine if they were the animals that killed 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie. Carnegie, a third-year geological engineering student at the University of Waterloo, had been working at Points North Landing as part of his fall term co-op program. Following an autopsy, RCMP said although they couldn't say for certain he had been killed by wolves, that was the working theory. Tim Trottier, a wildlife biologist with the Environmental Department, said four wolves had been seen in the area for some time and had been showing signs of losing their natural fear of humans. Trottier said he's never heard of wild wolves killing a human....

Feds kill four Farson wolves Federal wildlife control specialists killed four wolves near the Prospect Mountains northeast of here Wednesday afternoon, according to Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last week federal wildlife control specialists confirmed that four domestic sheep had been killed by wolves in the same area where wolves were confirmed to have killed at least a dozen ewes and lambs in June. In response to the spring depredations on the domestic sheep lambing ground, the female wolf and her pups were killed, halting depredations for a few months. In August, USDA Wildlife Services specialists confirmed that wolves in the same area had killed one ewe, and another 12 dead ewes were classified as “probable” wolf kills. The remaining 19 dead lambs were too decomposed for a determination to be made....Plan to control prairie dogs includes poison, shooting A new plan to manage prairie dogs on federal land in northwestern Nebraska and central and southwestern South Dakota that includes more liberal use of poisons could be in use by the end of the month. Ranchers say their property has been invaded by prairie dogs from Nebraska's Oglala and South Dakota's Buffalo Gap and Fort Pierre national grasslands. Prairie dogs can destroy grazing on private land and federal grasslands that ranchers lease for their cattle. Don Bright, supervisor of the Nebraska National Forest, developed the plan, which will allow expanded use of a number of lethal and nonlethal methods to keep prairie dogs from spreading to private property....Column: Your birthright, up for grabs ALL MY LIFE, I have introduced people to our nation's public lands, as a seasonal fishing guide in the Upper Midwest, as the head of the Bureau of Land Management and as the chief of the U.S. Forest Service — agencies that manage hundreds of millions of acres of public land. One thing I learned was that Americans love their national forests, parks and grasslands. Americans inherit a birthright that is the envy of the world: hundreds of millions of acres scattered across all regions of the country. The public estate includes famous places, such as Yellowstone National Park, and obscure places that make up picnic spots, fishing holes and weekend getaways. It has been that way for 100 years, thanks to the conservation legacy sparked by President Theodore Roosevelt. Unfortunately, our federal public lands are now under siege in Congress. It seems that some folks simply do not like the idea of the public owning land....Hearts and mines The latest salvo in the public relations war over the Rock Creek mining project was fired Nov. 6, when Canadian corporation Revett Minerals, owner of the Washington-based company that would operate the mine, began running advertisements in Montana newspapers and visiting with editorial boards. One of the first things readers see in the full-color, half-page ad is a Mary Mitchell quote from an article that appeared in the Sept. 18 Bonner County [Idaho] Daily Bee. Mitchell, the executive director of the Rock Creek Alliance, an environmental group fighting the proposed mine, is quoted as saying, "I mean, the company's at a point where they're saying the mine is even going to help the grizzly bear." At the bottom of the page is Revett's reply: "So you see, Mary, we are good for the bear!" Between the two quotes is a photograph of three bears in a creek and five paragraphs explaining Revett's proposed mitigation plan for the mine, and how it would benefit the population of 15 to 20 grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem....Huckleberry thicket could get forest service protection The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a plan to protect 9,500-acres of a huckleberry thicket in Southern Oregon considered sacred to generations of American Indian tribes. The administrative designation would recognize the cultural and historical significance of the area, dubbed the Huckleberry Patch by locals, and would require a management strategy to protect the shrubs. "Huckleberry production is low compared to historic levels," said Amy Amoroso, director of natural resources for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians, who helped the Forest Service develop the project's environmental assessment. "We would like to increase huckleberry production in this area." The huckleberry, a cousin to blueberries, is unique to the high mountains of the Pacific Northwest. They usually ripen in early fall....Deer and People Clash in Minnesota So many deer inhabit the area around Pig's Eye Lake just east of St. Paul that one frustrated local official has compared them to unwanted vermin. In a recent aerial survey of the 11-square-mile, mostly residential area, county biologists expecting to find about 100 deer instead counted more than 500. Some of the hooved creatures have been wandering into town, showing up at places like the emergency entrance of Regions Hospital and in front of the pro hockey arena. Most notably, a big buck broke several windows at the state Capitol before bounding just a few feet away from Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his startled security detail. "They're just everywhere. You see them every day," said Kathy Lantry, a city councilwoman who represents the area Pig's Eye Lake area. "They've become like rats."....Pa. May Let Hunters Use Ancient Weapon An ancient weapon that was apparently used as early as prehistoric times to slay woolly mammoths may soon be added to the arsenals of Pennsylvania hunters. The state Game Commission is drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device that propels a six-foot dart as fast as 80 mph. The commission could vote in January and make a final decision in April, officials said. It's not yet clear which animals would be hunted, but the proposal has the support of people who want to kill deer with the handmade weapon of Stone Age design. To use an atlatl _ the name is derived from an Aztec word for "throwing board" _ hunters hook arrowlike hunting darts into the end of the weapon, which is generally a wooden piece about 2 feet long. The leverage of the atlatl allows them to throw the 5- to 8-foot darts much farther than they could throw a spear. At BPS Engineering in Manhattan, Mont., a leading manufacturer of atlatls, owner Bob Perkins said customers pay $140 for a 2-foot maple production-line model, the Warrior, and a set of five 5 1/2-foot aluminum darts. Perkins has killed two deer with atlatls and recently killed his first buffalo....Scarce plant gets another chance Found only in Utah County, one of the world's rarest plants may be a step closer to survival. An agreement has been reached to take another look at protecting the habitat of the Deseret milkvetch, which grows only along the highway near the ghost town of Thistle in Spanish Fork Canyon. First discovered in 1909, the Deseret milkvetch, a member of the pea family, was thought to have become extinct until Brigham Young University botanist Elizabeth Meese stumbled upon it in 1981. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of the plants are believed to exist on about 200 acres, all within 1,000 feet of the highway in Spanish Fork Canyon, said Tony Frates of the Utah Native Plant Society. In July, the Utah Native Plant Society and the Center for Native Ecosystems filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the FWS has done nothing to protect the plant since it was listed as an endangered species in 1999.... Aid for the Steelhead? It's Up the Creek Stepping up efforts to help endangered steelhead trout make a comeback in Southern California, a state wildlife agency on Thursday agreed to pay for a $1.2-million fish ladder in Orange County that will enable the trout to swim upstream and spawn. The ladder will help fish migrating from the ocean to swim through a concrete culvert under Interstate 5 on Trabuco Creek in San Juan Capistrano. Currently, fish swimming upstream can go only as far as a large pool at the bottom of the culvert. The ladder will resemble a wide concrete stairway with eight to 12 steps, each about 1 foot higher than the other. During the rainy season, fish will be able to rest in 3-foot-deep pools between jumps. State biologists in May 2003 spotted what they believed were southern steelhead trout at the bottom of the culvert, the first sighting there in decades....Judge: Alabama sturgeon can stay on endangered list A federal judge has ruled that the Alabama sturgeon can remain on the endangered species list, but directed a federal agency to designate areas as its critical habitat — if the fish can be found again and bred. U.S. District Judge Virginia Hopkins, in an opinion Monday, denied a request by the Alabama-Tombigbee Rivers Coalition to have the fish removed from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The coalition, a group of businesses, filed suit in 2001 contesting the Alabama sturgeon's listing as an endangered species, citing economic consequences like disruption of river dredging, barge traffic and damming efforts needed for water commerce. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed the sturgeon on the list in May 2000, despite arguments that there was no evidence to show the fish is a distinct species....Bearly speaking The posters for the Northern Rockies Nature Forum listed a Tuesday, Nov. 15, event titled "State of the Grizzly: Recovered or Reeling." Those posters also listed three forum participants: Kate Kendall, U.S. Geological Service research biologist and leader of the Northern Divide Grizzly Project in Montana; Chris Servheen, Grizzly Bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Lee Metzgar, retired professor of wildlife biology at the University of Montana. None of those people appeared on Tuesday's panel, perhaps saying more about the contentious state of the discourse on environmental issues than any panel discussion could. The "State of the Grizzly" panel began to unravel when Metzgar withdrew due to a personal conflict. The Forum's organizers, the Native Forest Network (NFN), substituted Brian Peck, grizzly recovery specialist for the Great Bear Foundation, and Doug Honnold, an attorney with Earthjustice, aiming for what NFN Director Matt Koehler calls "a diversity of perspectives." Shortly after Kendall and Servheen learned of Honnold and Peck's addition to the panel, however, they withdrew. Kendall explains that she "was not comfortable being involved in a discussion of the politics of bear conservation," which the panel almost certainly would have turned out to be, since NFN had "substituted a lawyer who is actively involved in litigating agencies about grizzly bears and a bear advocate."....Hunters-homeowner conflicts grow When Tyler Maxwell fired off the shot that brought down an elk near here earlier this week, nearby homeowner Tim Plaska was on the phone almost immediately with game wardens to complain about the proximity to his home. Plaska, however, quickly learned Maxwell had broken no laws and had, in fact, been quite meticulous about making sure his shot was safe. It still didn't sit well with Plaska, who thought the law prevented someone from firing a high-powered rifle within a quarter-mile of a home. "There is no restriction," said Plaska, whose home is only about 50 yards from where Maxwell shot the elk. "And it was a legal kill." State game wardens say such complaints are growing as more people move into rural areas abutting public lands....Workshop details taming the wild in mustangs What does it take to turn a wild horse or burro into a gentle and social animal? Plenty of patience. Participants at the recent Wild Horse Workshop in Seguin spent a lot of time in the pen learning the first steps in gentling and training mustangs. The five-day workshop was an educational project involving Least Resistance Training Concepts (LRTC) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Participants who signed up received “hands-on” training from clinicians from around the United States....Grandmother Closer To Being Allowed To Live At National Park A Colorado grandmother living in Rocky Mountain National Park is several steps closer to be allowed to stay in her home for good. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a deal that would provide the 83-year-old widow with a lifetime lease on her family's cabin inside Rocky Mountain National Park. The National Park Service wanted to evict Betty Dick when her lease expired on July 16, but after the intervention of two U.S. senators and a congressman, a compromise was reached. The bill approved Wednesday essentially extends Dick's lease, allowing her to rent the cabin, which she uses as a summer home, and eight surrounding acres for $300 a year for the rest of her life....Group Lobbies for Human Extinction "We can't be breeding right now," says Les Knight. "It's obvious that the intentional creation of another [human being] by anyone anywhere can't be justified today." Knight is the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, an informal network of people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health of the Earth. Knight, whose convictions led him to get a vasectomy in the 1970s, when he was 25, believes that the human race is inherently dangerous to the planet and inevitably creates an unsustainable situation. "As long as there's one breeding couple," he says cheerfully, "we're in danger of being right back here again. Wherever humans live, not much else lives. It isn't that we're evil and want to kill everything -- it's just how we live."....This would, of course, violate the Endangered Species Act, even Pombo's version. Can't you just see it: a heavily armed USFWS agent telling a bear, "You can't hibernate there, that's critical human habitat.".... Sierra Club Launches New TV Series With Robert Greenwald The Sierra Club today announced plans for a new television series with award winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald ("Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price"). "Sierra Club Chronicles," a new monthly television series produced by Greenwald, captures the dramatic efforts of committed individuals across the country working everyday to protect the health of their environment and their communities. "All over America, there are inspirational, real life stories of women and men defending their homes, health and families from environmental hazards and threats," explained Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "'Sierra Club Chronicles' will take viewers directly into those communities and provide a first hand look at these profiles in environmental courage." The people and stories profiled in "Sierra Club Chronicles" come from diverse backgrounds: ranchers in New Mexico, emergency medical technicians in New York City, fishermen in Alaska, neighbors of a chemical plant in Mississippi, but all are united in a common cause -- the fight to protect their families, communities and the lands and livelihoods they love from pollution, corporate greed and short-sighted government policies....Farm Bureau: Thanksgiving Dinner Cost Up Slightly This Year A traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings, increased slightly in price this year, but still remains affordable, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In AFBF's 20th annual informal survey of the price of basic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table, the average cost of this year's feast for 10 is $36.78, a $1.10 price increase from last year's survey average of $35.68. The AFBF survey shopping list includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and beverages of coffee and milk, all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10. The cost of a 16-pound turkey, at $15.11 or roughly 94 cents per pound, reflects an increase of 5 cents per pound, or a total of 88 cents per turkey compared to 2004. This is the largest contributor to the overall increase in the cost of the 2005 Thanksgiving dinner....Cattle think they are dolphins while on marijuana There is evidence that some Hawaiian cattle are under the influence of dope and going into the ocean thinking they are dolphins. Oceanographers studying around the Hawaiian Islands describe the strange situation as exposure to second-hand smoke from terrific Hawaiian-grown marijuana. "A cattle rancher here has been growing some high-grade weed," said officer Loo Hakabaki, who is working with the oceanographers. "His cattle have been grazing on the crop." "And what has happened," said oceanographer C. Kenneth Broke, "is that the cattle are having mind-altering experiences. In this case, one or more have obviously been thinking they are dolphins and have set off to pack with the intelligent creatures." Police arrested the farmer and part-time ukulele player, Donnie Hoo, for growing illegal drugs. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Hoo claimed to be a librarian. "When the pot wears off," said Broke, "we are afraid the cattle will drown. But while they are under the influence of the drug, they seem to be doing rather well and getting along great with the dolphins."

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) Tuesday asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for an investigation of USDA's plans for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). After two years, USDA has yet to implement an animal ID program and has failed to inform producers and state governments about the costs the system will impose on them, Senator Harkin said in a release. The goal of the NAIS is rapid animal traceback that can help officials contain and eradicate animal diseases livestock and poultry. Such a system could help in fighting U.S. outbreaks of avian flu, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) for example. "After two years of discussions, USDA has no clear plan for moving forward with a workable system," Senator Harkin said. "Producers are getting upset that they still don't know how much the system will cost them and who will run it," Senator Harkin said....

It's proving harder than anticipated to type the avian flu viruses wild ducks sampled in Canada were carrying because a number were co-infected with several strains, creating a viral "soup" that is difficult to separate down to its basic ingredients, government officials have admitted. They say, however, that it appears that none of the viruses are highly pathogenic, a finding that would support the suggestion none of the birds were carrying the worrisome Asian H5N1 flu virus, which is a so-called high path virus. "We can't say we don't have an H5N1," said Dr. Jim Clark, acting director of the animal health and production program for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the lead government agency on this work. "That's a possibility. But we can say with reasonable certainty that H5N1, if it is there, it's not the high path Asiatic subtype that's going on in Southeast Asia."....

To die on the plain And it was there on the plain last spring, with life raging all around her, where 46-year-old Marlene Braun ended her life with a blue steel .38-caliber revolver. While the sound of the discharge slowly dissolved in the valley, BLM officials in Bakersfield, who received an e-mail from Braun, began scrambling. Braun was the Carrizo Plain National Monument Manager; a position that was created after President Clinton proclaimed the Carrizo a national monument days before he left office in 2001. As its first manager, Braun was hired to carry out a controversial mandate: developing a resource management plan that would put for the first time the health of native species ahead of cattle grazing interests at the Carrizo. During her tenure the Carrizo became a symbolic theater for a heated debate over private grazing on public lands. "I had been working on [the plan] for over 2 years," Braun wrote in a 30-page chronicle of events, recently provided to New Times, leading to her own death....Milestone Approaches in Bid to Restore the Great Plains "Got to feed my buffies," Bill Willcutt, a black silk kerchief tied around his neck, says as he jockeys a pickup truck into place behind a large, round bale of hay. Two metal arms swing down and pick up the roll and drop it in front of 16 bison in a pen made of hay bales. Mr. Willcutt is no ordinary rancher. He manages more than 31,000 acres here in the heart of Phillips County, one of the most remote counties in the continental United States. He has been entrusted with the bison, which are seed stock for the start of a restoration project by the American Prairie Foundation, which owns 11,000 acres and leases 20,000 more. On Nov. 17, the bison will be turned out of their pen onto the dun-colored prairie in the middle of their ancestral home. The foundation's project is one of several major independent efforts under way across the West intended to re-create North America's ancient prairie. The players include the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and Ted Turner, the media mogul, who owns a large bison herd....Roads to Nowhere Then, late last year, Habbeshaw and Smith upped the ante, erecting county markers on many of the same disputed roadways, often side-by-side with the replaced BLM markers. There was a stark difference between the two competing signs: The BLM has banned all-terrain and off-highway vehicles, while the county has explicitly allowed them. This added gas to a smoldering fire, igniting questions about the county’s conduct. “These unilateral actions taken by Kane County are hugely problematic,” said BLM spokesman Don Banks. “It shows a clear disregard for governmental cooperation and clear disregard for the law.” In the face of continued defiance, the BLM referred the case to U.S. Attorney Paul Warner’s office. But this new round of legal action has been slow to come. Some wonder why government agencies seem hesitant to litigate. Some wonder if political motivations aren’t at play. But Kane County officials have no problem being sued. What’s more, they intend on making this an all-out fight. The county has retained the high-profile legal team of Ron Yengich and Shawn Welch, and the more Habbeshaw talks, the clearer it becomes that he relishes the situation....In the Tetons with grizzly bear researchers As we unload our backpacks on an aluminum-gray day, an elk hunter warns us of a grizzly bear lurking in the willows up the trail. It is feeding on a carcass and, as everyone in the group knows, a grizzly dining on elk meat doesn't like uninvited guests. The bear had lunged at a hunter on horseback earlier this morning. It's no surprise that we're in the company of bears. I'm tagging along with Shannon Podruzny, an ecologist who studies grizzlies, and her team of researchers. They're heading into the woods to unlock more of the mysteries of one of the most fascinating and fearsome animals on earth. The idea is to study the grizzly's habitat, its diet and daybeds, but not to encounter the big bruins....Report says preserve’s trust must improve A fire plan, liability coverage and an annual audit are just a few of the issues the Valles Caldera Trust needs to resolve in managing the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve, according to a U.S. General Accounting Office report released Wednesday. Frequent turnover in the trust’s board members and key staff has further hindered efforts to manage the preserve, said the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The board in general agreed with a draft of the report but believes the trust already is addressing some of the concerns, board chairwoman Tracy Hephner said. “We didn’t think we were perfect,” she said of the preserve’s first review by the GAO. “I actually think it’s helpful at this point in the organization’s development.”....National Energy Corridors May Impact Navajo Reservation Land U.S. government plans to designate national energy corridors on federal lands in 11 western states surrounding the Navajo Nation, appear to be building toward a legal takeover of Indian land through rights-of-way agreements the tribe could be forced to accept. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 enacted in August directs the secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy and the Interior to designate federal land in 11 western states for oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines, and electricity transmission and distribution facilities, or energy corridors. The federal agencies must amend their land use plans to designate the series of corridors on federal lands in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and have been conducting hearings on the issue, though none in Navajo Indian Country. mapFederal lands are a combination of public domain lands, including state property and lands administered by agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which holds 56 million acres in trust status on behalf of Indian nations and individuals....Wyoming governor: Don't wait to delist grizzlies Gov. Dave Freudenthal says he hopes there's no delay in removing Wyoming's grizzly bears from the federal endangered species list. This week's announcement by the federal government that it intends to remove grizzly bears in the Yellowstone area from the list gives the state a chance to chart a positive future for the animals, Freudenthal said. Freudenthal said he sees the grizzly bear at a crossroads in Wyoming. If the proposed federal rule announced this week becomes final and the grizzly is removed from the endangered species list, he said, the fear and hostility that he senses are currently building in the state will ease. He says that would benefit both the bears and the people who live with them. U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton announced federal plans to remove the grizzly from the endangered species list Tuesday. She said they could be removed from the list as soon as next year but acknowledged that litigation from environmental groups could delay the move....Group opposes ‘rags’ over river When she looks at the Arkansas River, Cathey Young sees something that won’t be made more beautiful by a giant canopy of fabric. She doesn’t look at the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s conceptual drawings and see anything she’d call art. Instead, she sees traffic backed up for miles, ambulances that can’t get up or down U.S. Highway 50 and birds and bighorn sheep frightened away from their river. “We just don’t want to see this thing come,” Young said of the proposal to drape six miles of the river with huge panels of clear fabric....Long delays seen for pipeline plan Approval for a 235-mile pipeline to bring water to Las Vegas from rural Nevada could face long delays, legislators were told Tuesday. If the Bureau of Land Management approves the right of way for the $2 billion project, opponents could appeal first to an Interior Department review board and then to federal courts. State BLM Director Ron Wenker told the Legislative Committee on Public Lands that the agency will start accepting public comment next year on the application to transport water from White Pine and Lincoln counties to the Las Vegas area. Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said there could be objections to the right of way "by third parties -- environmentalists come to mind."....Loophole For Hunters Targeted Big-game hunters will find it far more difficult and less lucrative to donate their extra trophy mounts and claim charitable tax deductions under new tax rules being debated this week on the Senate floor. Tightening the trophy-mount tax break, and making sure that museums do not accept donated items with the intention of quickly selling them off, have been identified as priorities by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. New language that would substantially close the loopholes was voted out of the Finance Committee on Tuesday. Grassley said yesterday that he expects Senate approval and that "I hope my House colleagues will see it's only fair to taxpayers to rein in trophy abuse." The loophole Grassley said he is seeking to close allows big-game hunters to deduct some or all of the cost of their safaris if they later donate to a museum some of the trophy animals they kill and have mounted....Where medicine, fishery management merge Today, modern fish culture and medicine again merge at the Bozeman station where Henshall once lived and worked. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership (AADAP) program is based there. This national program is designed to generate, compile, and manage much of the complex information needed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for one purpose — to get new aquatic animal drugs and theraputants on the market and in use. No matter if the drug is to be used for treating parasitic infection in largemouth bass, gill disease in walleye, or bacterial infection in salmon and trout — fish you might find on the end of your line or under plastic at the grocery — AADAP plays a major role in channeling that information to the FDA. Dr. Dave Erdahl, AADAP director, holds a shovelnose sturgeon from the Yellowstone River. The fish is used as a surrogate to the endangered pallid sturgeon to determine dispersal patterns of larval fish drifting in the current. It's an arduous process to get a new aquatic animal drug approved, and it can take years of research and millions of dollars.... Senators: Take USDA logo off imported beef Several senators are proposing that the U.S. Department of Agriculture take its logo off certain cuts of imported meat, a move that could make the market more favorable for some U.S. ranchers. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., introduced legislation Wednesday that would prohibit labels such as "USDA prime" or "USDA choice" on packages of imported beef and lamb. The bill, which is co-sponsored by North Dakota Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, would prevent the Agricultural Marketing Service from grading those meats. Johnson's bill is in response to several delays for a mandatory meat labeling law authorized in the 2002 farm bill. Originally scheduled to begin in 2004, the law was delayed until 2006 two years ago and then, just last month, to 2008. On Thursday, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and other senators from the region will introduce separate legislation that would repeal the most recent delay, moving the law's start date back to 2006....U.S. officials to seek lifting all mad cow restrictions on Canadian cattle The Department of Agriculture will propose by next year lifting all mad cow-related restrictions on imports of Canadian cattle, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The restrictions, in place since Canada's first case of mad cow disease was disclosed in 2003, were eased earlier this year to allow younger cattle to enter the United States. A prohibition has remained on Canadian animals older than 30 months. Levels of infection from the disease are thought to increase with age. Industry officials argue that rules for how cattle are slaughtered would keep the disease from ever entering the human or animal food supply. There has also been a ban on the shipment of Canadian beef and dairy breeding cattle to the United States. The USDA said it is writing a rule that would lift remaining restrictions on Canadian cattle. Ron DeHaven, administrator of the department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the rule will be proposed in six to eight months.... Panel targets border policies The House battle over border security began yesterday, with the Homeland Security Committee passing an amendment that would compensate local governments for some incurred law-enforcement costs as part of a broad immigration-enforcement bill. The overall bill, which would end the government's "catch-and-release" policy for illegals from countries other than Mexico and require a border-barrier system, is expected to pass the committee today. The measure also would require the Homeland Security and Defense departments to coordinate a border strategy and would require the former to provide 100 percent coverage of the borders through fences, aerial surveillance and other technology. Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican, said the Border Patrol refuses to police some areas within five miles of the border and that the fences of ranchers in his district are being destroyed by illegal border crossings....Rodeo champ died tragically It began as a celebratory day with floats, a marching band and several riders on horseback participating in a Chandler rodeo parade on Arizona Avenue. It ended shortly thereafter in tragedy when two runaway horses plowed into world champion bareback rider Carl Dossey, sending the retired cowboy tumbling to the pavement with a serious head injury and broken arm. Dossey, who was 37 at the time of the 1955 accident, never regained consciousness and died early the next morning. "He was a hero," said Eddie Dossey, Carl's son. "He saved my life." Carl Dossey, who won the bareback crown in 1940 and later became a respected rodeo judge for 12 years, is one of eight former athletes, three coaches and the 1976 state champion Chandler High basketball team being inducted into the Chandler Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday at Hamilton High. Eddie and other witnesses remember Carl putting himself between his son and the two horses that had bolted from a buggy about three blocks behind the Dosseys. Eddie, who suffered a broken right leg when the Shetland pony he was riding fell to the asphalt, and other witnesses said Carl's response also prevented the horses from veering into several band members....

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

House and Senate negotiators struck a tentative deal on the expiring Patriot Act that would curb FBI subpoena power and require the Justice Department to more fully report its secret requests for information about ordinary people, according to officials involved in the talks. The agreement, which would make most provisions of the existing law permanent, was reached just before dawn Wednesday. The tentative deal would make permanent all but a handful of the expiring provisions, the sources said. Others would expire in seven years if not renewed by Congress. They include rules on wiretapping, obtaining business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and new standards for monitoring "lone wolf" terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power. The draft also would impose a new requirement that the Justice Department report to Congress annually on its use of national security letters, secret requests for the phone, business and Internet records of ordinary people. The aggregate number of letters issued per year, reported to be about 30,000, is classified. Citing confidential investigations, the Justice Department has refused lawmakers' request for the information. The 2001 Patriot Act removed the requirement that the records sought be those of someone under suspicion. As a result, FBI agents can review the digital records of a citizen as long as the bureau can certify that the person's records are "relevant" to a terrorist investigation. Also part of the tentative agreement are modest new requirements on so-called roving wiretaps _ monitoring devices placed on a single person's telephones and other devices to keep a target from evading law enforcement officials by switching phones or computers. The tentative deal also would raise the threshold for securing business records under FISA, requiring law enforcement to submit a "statement of facts" showing "reasonable grounds to believe the records are relevant to an investigation. Law enforcement officials also would have to show that an individual is in contact with or known to be in contact with a suspected agent of a foreign power....

HONEYWELL is developing a micro flying spy drone -- that would be used for civilian law enforcement! The device, a hovering robot carrying video cameras and other sensors, is being created and tested at HONEYWELL's Albuquerque, NM plant. The first round of testing on the drone [MICRO AIR VEHICLE] has been completed, reports Bob Martin of CBS affiliate KRQE. The battery powered craft can stay in the air for 50-60 minutes at a time, and moves around at up to 55 kilometers an hour. The Micro Air Vehicle has flown more than 200 successful flights, including flying in a representative urban environment....

The FBI and other federal crimefighting agencies came out well in a $57.9 billion spending bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday, but funds for state and local law enforcement were cut. The 94-5 Senate vote sent the bill, which covers Justice, Commerce, State Department and science agency programs, to President Bush for his signature. The Justice-Commerce bill for fiscal year 2006 that began Oct. 1 would provide $5.8 billion for the FBI, $1.7 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration and $924 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, all up from fiscal 2005. But the $2.7 billion in aid for state and local law enforcement, while $1.1 billion above the president's request, was down $300 million from last year....

First kills made in renewal of bison hunt For the first time in 15 years, bison fell to hunters' bullets near here Tuesday, after wandering out of the protection of nearby Yellowstone National Park. Montana's contentious bison hunt got under way at sunrise, with a light layer of snow on the ground and the temperature hovering at 4 degrees. Within the first 90 minutes, 17-year-old George Clement of Belgrade, who won one of the coveted licenses in a drawing this fall after applying on a whim, shot a bison in a draw near Gardiner, just north of Yellowstone. State officials later confirmed a second bison had been killed on private property near the park's western boundary. Clement, who took the day off from school for the hunt, said he shot the bison from about 30 yards away - and less than an hour after he and family members arrived and began surveying the rolling, shadowy landscape for bison. Clement said he was surprised at the sheer size of the beast: It took four people to roll the animal on its back, and hours to peel back the hide and gut the animal - work that stained the snow red and sent steam rising in the frosty air....Landowner group takes on eminent domain Eminent domain. Condemnation. Them's fightin' words in a state that prides itself on property rights and individualism. But some landowners say the words are now part of the common vernacular in the Powder River Basin where coal-bed methane gas developers are trenching hundreds of miles of pipe and power line to connect thousands of new wells each year. "They've raised the level of need to convenience, and convenience should not be how we lose our property rights in Wyoming," said Johnson County landowner Steve Adami. Adami is challenging an attempt by Gillette-based Kennedy Oil to take a 4-mile easement across his ranch via eminent domain for an underground power line. Adami said he's already granted the company an "energy corridor" easement elsewhere on his property, and the additional easement is a matter of convenience because of poor planning by Kennedy Oil. John Kennedy, owner of Kennedy Oil, contends that he's only asking for what is economically practical and allowed for under Wyoming law. Furthermore, he and other coal-bed methane developers in the area are burying power lines rather constructing cheaper overhead power lines to avoid negative wildlife impacts and marring the ranchers' vistas. But Adami said he's no rabble rouser. Energy companies seem to wield the threat of condemnation too loosely, he said. And too often landowners give in to avoid the expensive legal fight that seems to almost never favor the property owner....Feds deny protection for snail A small land snail found in the Uinta mountains of northeast Utah may be uncommon, but it's not unique enough to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday. At least one conservation group in the region is promising to challenge the ruling, insisting the Uinta mountain snail is a separate subspecies that needs protection from logging, grazing, off-road vehicles and prescribed fires. "I see no reason why we wouldn't challenge this, because the scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that it is a unique subspecies," said Kevin Mueller, of the Utah Environmental Congress, based in Salt Lake City....Huge Ariz. land swap OK'd A bill that could bring widespread changes to north-central Arizona is on its way to President Bush to sign into law after the U.S. House on Tuesday approved a huge federal and private land swap. Under the deal, the largest U.S. Forest Service land exchange in Arizona in 50 years, Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin would turn over about 35,000 acres southeast of Seligman to Prescott National Forest in return for federal land scattered throughout the Coconino and Prescott national forests, mostly near or in cities. The more than 15,000 acres Ruskin will get includes about 2,200 acres bordering Interstate 17 and Arizona 260, half of which is within the Camp Verde limits. Ruskin plans to build a shopping center and homes, sell right-of-way for an anticipated highway bypass between Camp Verde and Cottonwood, and donate about 500 acres to Camp Verde as open space....Bush due to issue new dam relicensing rules President Bush is set to issue new rules governing the relicensing of the nation's hydroelectric dams, a move the energy industry hopes will cut bureaucratic hurdles but that some argue could weaken environmental protections. The new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules, due out as early as Thursday, are part of the 2005 energy bill Bush signed Aug. 8. They're detailed in 109 pages of Interior Department documents obtained by The Associated Press. According to the changes, utilities now will be able to challenge requirements written into dam licenses by federal agencies, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Such conditions can set river flows to boost recreation - or even force utilities to build fish ladders to bolster endangered salmon and steelhead runs. In addition, the new rules will allow utilities to propose their own alternatives to such conditions....Wyoming plans grizzly hunt if ban lifted Wyoming game officials say they will institute the state's first grizzly bear hunting season in more than 30 years if the bear is removed from federal protection, but Idaho and Montana say it is too early to make such a decision. The comments came after the Interior Department announced Tuesday that it will propose that bears around Yellowstone National Park be removed from federal protection under the endangered species law. Officials said that grizzly population in the area has grown to an estimated 600 since the bears were put on the threatened species list in 1975. The three states bordering Yellowstone have management plans, approved by the federal government, that include provisions for hunting the bears if their populations rise above certain levels....Feds make dramatic move to save orcas Puget Sound's orcas are in such danger of extinction that the federal government on Tuesday ended years of legal squabbling and agreed to protect them using its strongest and most controversial tool under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The National Marine Fisheries Service surprised orca advocates by listing the charismatic 4- to 6-ton "southern resident" killer whales as "endangered" — the ESA's most serious designation. It immediately turned what could have been a largely symbolic gesture into a move that could affect boating, pollution discharges, major construction projects and a host of other activities. "Oh my goodness, that's beautiful," said Fred Felleman, regional director for the environmental group Ocean Advocates....The Curious Case of The One-Eyed Sheep Idaho sheep ranchers couldn't figure out why, in the decade after World War II, a random batch of their lambs were being born with strange birth defects. The creatures had underdeveloped brains and a single eye planted, cyclopslike, in the middle of their foreheads. In 1957 they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. The scientists worked for 11 years to solve the mystery. One of them, Lynn James, lived with the sheep for three summers before discovering the culprit:corn lilies. When the animals moved to higher ground during droughts, they snacked on the flowers. The lilies, it turned out, contained a poison, later dubbed cyclopamine, that stunted developing lamb embryos. The mothers remained unharmed. The case of the cyclopamine and the one-eyed Idaho lambs remained a freakish chemistry footnote for the next 25 years; researchers never could uncover why cyclopamine caused birth defects. But now cancer researchers have improbably seized on the obscure plant chemical as the blueprint for a half-dozen promising tumor-fighters....Rhinestones and Cowboy Hats as the Opry Turns 80 "Boy, Carnegie Hall can be very quiet," Alison Krauss observed between songs on Monday night. For the first time since 1961, the Grand Ole Opry, a Nashville institution founded 80 years ago, brought an all-star revue to Carnegie Hall. The occasion was the night before the Country Music Awards at Madison Square Garden. Everyone - musicians and audience - was on good behavior, not always a good thing for country. It was a night for ballads, not hoedowns. The Opry has always been a live radio show, and on Monday night the lineup of musicians playing a few songs each included current country hitmakers like Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley, along with longtime Opry members like Charley Pride, Little Jimmy Dickens and the songwriter Bill Anderson. A jovial Vince Gill, who sang his own set and sat in with others, and the earnest Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs were the hosts. The program was broadcast live on the Nashville AM radio station WSM, as well as on Sirius satellite radio and the Opry's website, www.opry.com. It was also videotaped for a cable telecast next spring on the GAC channel. In its modest way, the concert was a country manifesto promising unity, tradition, sincerity and glimmers of diversity. Collaborations presented country as one big family; Mr. Gill and Ms. Krauss reappeared through the show....Stacy Westfall First Woman Competitor at Road to the Horse You've been waiting so long! After six months of secrecy, event producer Tootie Bland announces reining champion Stacy Westfall as the fourth clinician and the first woman to compete at the 2006 Road to the Horse Colt Starting Challenge. Westfall will make history as she meets well-known cowboys Craig Cameron, Van Hargis, and Martin Black to start, ride, and compete on previously untouched horses in Murfreesboro, Tenn. February 25-26, 2006. Westfall, from Mt. Gilead, Ohio, is no stranger to the competition arena-or to being the mysterious challenger. She's known for her "mystery-rider" routine at horse shows across the U.S. Dressed in a dark trench coat, hat and bandana to cover her face, Westfall asked her horse to perform sliding stops and fast spins without reins and with musical accompaniment. In 2003, National Reining Horse Association Futurity fans leapt to their feet after her bridleless ride rated tops with the judges. She won without so much as a neck rope to control her horse....Champion Cowboy - Champion Horse Glen Goddard of Maple Creek recently returned home with the World Steer Wrestling Championship from Winnemucca, Nevada. The NSPRA (National Senior Pro Rodeo Association) World Championship was held October 31 - November 5th. After more than 20 years of competing as a member of the Canadian Cowboy’s Association, Goddard joined the NSPRA four years ago. NSPRA rodeos are smaller rodeos with both professional and amateur competitors. Goddard competes in the 40 - 50 age bracket. There are competitors in the 50 - 60, and over 70 age categories, he said. His fastest time for the season was 4.2 seconds. Goddard’s horse ‘Spook’ was awarded Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year. All the steer wrestlers in the NSPRA circuit vote on the winning horse. Spook is a 17 year old quarter horse. It was a good year for him also,” Goddard added....'Being a cowboy' nets McBride PBR-record take As J.W. Hart pulled McBride's bull rope for the final ride of the 2005 season, Hart offered some advice to his good friend. "He told me, 'Don't let go,' " McBride recalled. At stake were the Professional Bull Riders world title and the accompanying $1 million bonus. McBride needed a ride of any kind to win his first-ever PBR gold buckle. And a ride of any kind he got. McBride was sideways with three seconds remaining, but hung on for a 75-point ride aboard Camo, for the PBR world championship earlier this month. "It pays off to listen,'' McBride joked with a nationwide audience. "That was the ugliest, worst ride I ever made since I was a calf rider. But, on the other hand, it was the best ride I ever made. "Bull riding went out the window when I nodded my head because that ride was pretty much about being a cowboy.'' Including the million-dollar bonus, McBride earned a PBR record $1,479,231. He finished second in the aggregate to Guilherme Marchi of Brazil.... Film captures essence of California cowboys But in the new documentary "Tapadero," the stories and traditions of the California vaqueros, or cowboys, are presented in earnest by framing the "Californios" as humble, hardworking ranch owners and hands who have carried on the traditions of Spanish settlers in 1800s California for generations in an almost sacred exchange. Co-writers Susan Jensen and Paul Singer, a Santa Barbara-based couple, produced and directed the documentary. The film was born out of the pair's fondness for riding, which led to their discovery of the vaqueros, a distinct brand of cowboy when compared to those in other Western and Southwest states, such as Texas and Utah. In the documentary, the sight of mostly white cowboys using methods and tools designed by Mexican and Spanish ranch hands gives the viewer an understanding of the appreciation modern California cowboys have for their brown-skinned forbearers. Nearly 150 years after the first vaqueros settled along the coast, the traditions have remained and, according to the film, are experiencing somewhat of a resurgence due to a new generation of college-educated cowboys....

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The Jaguar Habitat Subcommittee will be meeting November 18th in Lordsburg, New Mexico, at The Baxter Center, 313 East 4th Street. The meeting will begin promptly at 10 am.

The public is invited to attend. The subcommittee will be reviewing a map the Center for Biological Diversity has developed for "potential habitat" for jaguar in New Mexico.

This map includes all the historical sightings of jaguar over the last 500 years and includes many counties in New Mexico that have not been previously included in the current Jaguar Conservation Assessment and Strategy. Right now the only entity in New Mexico that is a signator to the Arizona/New Mexico Jaguar Team, besides the federal and state agencies (who have nothing to lose in this mapping process), is the Hidalgo NRCS.

It is extremely important that potentially affected ranchers, farmers and elected officials show up to discuss this map. In my opinion, it goes way beyond common sense and the scientific planning necessary to protect any jaguars that might wander into New Mexico from Mexico.

Although the radical environmental community is not a signator on the Jaguar Team, the Sky Island Alliance, Wildlands Project, Center for Biological Diversity and their supporters, will certainly be there!!

Judge halts Calif. Sequioa logging project A federal judge stopped a logging project in Giant Sequoia National Monument on Monday, keeping intact more than 1,000 acres in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world's largest trees. Judge Charles R. Breyer issued a preliminary injunction blocking a timber sale, saying the U.S. Forest Service had ignored extensive research on how commercial logging would affect wildlife in the region. "We hope they're finally getting the message," said Deborah Reames, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups that brought the lawsuit. Reames said the project would have hurt wildlife, some of which is at the point of extinction....Volunteers are upset by safety rules in forest Advocacy groups who help maintain trails in the Chattahoochee National Forest are concerned that strict regulations will put a damper on volunteerism. Representatives from various user groups attended a meeting Nov. 3 at the forest's Chattooga district office in Clarkesville, where they were told that anyone working on forest service trails must comply with extensive safety guidelines. Among the requirements, all volunteers are supposed to wear hardhats, 8-inch-high boots and long-sleeved shirts. Those who work with power equipment also must wear goggles, face masks, hearing protection and chaps, heavy coverings on the front of their pants. "They've interpreted the regulations to mean volunteers should be considered the same as employees while they are working," said Keith McFadden, who coordinates trail maintenance for the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, or SORBA. "They have gone overboard with the regulations," said Joan Grant, chairwoman of the Georgia Horse Council trails committee. "It almost feels like they're trying to run us out. We're trying to help (the forest service), because their funds are being cut. But I'm afraid this is going to dishearten a lot of loyal trail people."....Grizzlies set to be removed from U.S. endangered list Grizzly bear populations have recovered to the extent that the species will be taken off the list of endangered and threatened species, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton is expected to announce today. The Bush administration has been under mounting pressure from Western lawmakers, who say that when a species is recovered, it should be delisted to relieve property and, in some cases, hunting restrictions imposed by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee set criteria for recovery in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Those targets have been met, but the bear remains on the list. Sen. Craig Thomas, Wyoming Republican and a champion of ESA reform, met with Mrs. Norton last month to discuss the delisting. "I told her that Interior's credibility hangs on this action -- this is what's wrong with ESA. This plan is a good one, has a scientific basis and needs action," Mr. Thomas said after the meeting. Cameron Hardy, a spokesman for Mr. Thomas, said the move is a "positive step," but he voiced skepticism about the time it might take to complete the delisting process. "It took 10 years for the bear to recover, it should not take 10 years to get the delisting in place," Mr. Hardy said.... Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Recovered, Challenges to Delisting Remain Defenders of Wildlife today hailed the grizzly bear's dramatic comeback in the Yellowstone region, but noted that rollbacks in national forest protection by the Bush administration pose a threat to sustaining the bear's recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will announce tomorrow that it will move to declare the grizzly bear recovered in and around Yellowstone. "The Endangered Species Act has been a roaring success for the grizzly bear in Yellowstone. We can celebrate the fact that the bear has met and exceeded recovery goals," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president for Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The Endangered Species Act has done its job, and the wildlife professionals have done their jobs. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has not done its job of ensuring the long-term protection of the bears. By weakening national forest management and eliminating roadless area protections, the White House has created doubt about the lasting recovery of Yellowstone's grizzlies." In the Yellowstone ecosystem, numbers of grizzly bears have grown steadily since they were first listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. At a low of around 200 animals when listed, the grizzly may now number more than 600 in and around Yellowstone National Park, and the population is increasing between four and seven percent each year. With proper management of habitat and key food sources, scientists estimate a 96 percent likelihood of having a healthy grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone ecosystem for the next 500 years....Column: Species' survival depends on the public's voice In 1989, as government lawyers tried to assess the environmental damage caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the American public was asked: How much was an Alaskan sea otter worth? The presumption was that the existence of wild animals, even in such a remote corner of the USA, was the right of every citizen, and that the public deserved compensation should these animals be harmed. Eventually, a price tag of $89,000 per oiled sea otter was used to calculate part of the $1 billion settlement against Exxon (now the ExxonMobil Corp.). The public is again being asked how much wild animals are worth. Based on proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act approved by the House of Representatives in September, the answer is, not much. At least not to the average American. Rather than businesses being charged for harming wildlife, the proposal would compensate developers and farmers on whose lands endangered species had the misfortune to reside....New direction for natural gas: Northwest The energy future of the Pacific Northwest is headed straight for Frans and Mieke Eykel's backyard. The Eykels have lived on this low-slung, bucolic strip of land in the Columbia River for 11 years. Frans, a retired aviation maintenance engineer and former Seattleite, says they can identify the different vessels that ply the river — grain barges, cruise ships, oil tankers — by sound alone. But the prospect of new ships — transports carrying millions of gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a proposed terminal across the Columbia — has the Eykels fuming....Resigned to uranium You get comfortable having boundless blue sky and wide-open range for neighbors when you live here. So the Asays, whose kin homesteaded the area four generations ago, naturally were surprised last spring when they heard they might get a new neighbor. Then they were downright shocked when they learned that a monster pile of radioÂactive waste was moving in. The U.S. Department of Energy had decided to move uranium tailings and toxic chemicals - as much as 18 million tons of them - from the banks of the Colorado River in Moab to just beyond the family land where the Asays live in a modest, ranch-style home, built by Rod and a friend two decades ago. Most people would expect people like the Asays to resist. And, while they did at first, they have come to accept the Energy Department's decision, thanks to some time, distance and a measure of trust....Rig shortage causes driller to look to Mexico A shortage of coalbed methane drilling rigs in the United States forced one Gillette drilling company to the international market to find a rig. Ed Livingston, a Cody-based rig broker who buys and sells worldwide, found a rig in Mexico for Exploration Inc., which decided to expand its operations because of the coalbed methane boom. Exploration went with the 1978 Gardner-Denver 2500 rig from Mexico because the company could get it sooner than ordering a new rig and it cost much less than a new rig. "The downside to a new rig - it has a year or longer delay date if you ordered it today," Exploration co-owner Paul Walker said. A new rig would also cost about $1 million. But the rig from Mexico was priced at about $300,000. Even when all the necessary repair is added to the cost of other components like a doghouse and dozer, it's a better value for the company, Walker said....Drilling divides town Drilling for oil and natural gas near Dinosaur National Monument is a hot topic at the Miner's Café on Brontosaurus Boulevard. Owners Raymond and Ester Miner and their daughter Sandi Garcia say the town needs jobs. Drilling will bring those jobs. "The town needs something, or it's dead," Raymond Miner said. The Miners say energy development is Dinosaur's best chance to bring some people and their money into this town of about 320 people on the Utah border. But not everyone in Dinosaur thinks drilling near the monument, known for its fossils and canyon land, would benefit the town. At the other end of the boulevard, Leona Hemmerich and Bill Mitchem, owners of the Bedrock Depot, say drilling would hurt the town's tourism economy and possibly the water supply....A voice for silence There are only seven or eight quiet places remaining in the United States. Fewer than 10. In the entire nation. Barely more than half a dozen in all the parks, wilderness, refuges and "wild" spaces that we treasure. Fewer all the time. Quiet is going extinct. These thoughts turn over in the mind as you explore one of these few quiet places left in North America, perhaps the quietest of them all. Your guide is a man who has given his career to listening and recording the pure sounds of nature — and searching for meaning in what they convey. He has become one of the few Americans to raise his voice on behalf of the vanishing quiet....A Troubled Outlook for Parasites You'd think that if anything could capitalize on global warming, a parasite would be it. After all, parasites are nature's ultimate opportunists. But no, at least not the ones that affect caterpillars - mainly tiny wasps that lay eggs inside them, leading to their deaths. According to a study by Lee A. Dyer of Tulane University in New Orleans and colleagues, global warming - specifically, the kinds of extreme weather like droughts and storms that are spawned by higher average temperatures - will lead to decreased parasitism in caterpillars. That may be good news for the caterpillars, but in other ways it is bad news, Dr. Dyer said. Without parasites, populations of some caterpillars - those that like to eat crops, say - could soar. "We should see more of these damaging outbreaks of herbivores," Dr. Dyer said....Parcel within park for sale The only parcel of private property within the Theodore Roosevelt National Park's south unit is for sale. Norbert Sickler, of Dickinson, has owned the land since 1981. The 176 acres borders the park on three sides, between the Painted Canyon and Medora exits on Interstate 94. The land is listed at $352,000 through a real estate agent. National Park Service spokesman Barney Olson said the land is "very high priority" for the agency. The Park Service has made an offer that mirrors good grazing pasture, about $325 an acre, Olson said. He said negotiations are open. Sickler wants about $2,000 an acre for the land. The land also is being eyed as a location for a motel by a Minnesota developer, said Lowell Nester, the realty agent for the sale....Column: Why we must restore Hetch Hetchy In 1988, while serving President Ronald Reagan as secretary of the Interior Department, I proposed that we should investigate the possibility of draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and restoring the valley to its original state; a smaller but no less glorious sister of the stunning Yosemite Valley. I requested a preliminary study by the Bureau of Reclamation to explore "win-win" restoration options, and the bureau advised me that it appeared that San Francisco's water supply could be protected and perhaps, even, enhanced by various possible options. My modest study proposal was met by an unexpected firestorm of opposition from some people who normally favored environmental responsibility and conservation, most notably then-mayor of San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein. Confronted with an opportunity to review the matter, she made every effort to quash both investigation and discussion, vociferously insisting that Hetch Hetchy was a "birthright" of the people of San Francisco....Yellowstone bison numbers at all-time recorded high On a quiet day in Yellowstone National Park, the bison may outnumber the visitors. At the latest count, there were 4,900 bison in the park, an all-time high since records have been kept. Park biologists say the swollen population is the result of several factors, including a string of mild winters and plenty of grasses and sedges to eat. There's no sign that the landscape is having a hard time keeping up, according to park officials. “We've got 220,000 acres of bison habitat in Yellowstone National Park. That's a lot of space for 5,000 animals,” said Rick Wallen, a park wildlife biologist. Recent research indicates that the landscape can handle between 2,200 and 7,500 bison, according to Glenn Plumb, supervisory wildlife biologist at Yellowstone. But as the population grows, the likelihood increases that bison will push beyond Yellowstone's borders, and that's where problems arise....Washington Farm Bureau announces property-rights initiative campaign The Washington Farm Bureau on Monday announced a campaign for a property-rights initiative similar to one in Oregon that was widely passed by voters but struck down by the courts. The initiative would require landowners to be compensated by governments if an action damages either the use or value of private property, or would require governments to waive regulations on that land. Dan Wood, the group's director of government relations, said the initiative would not change current planning and agricultural zoning ordinances or the state Growth Management Act....It's All Trew: Texas weather always unpredictable Mother Nature can be cranky and unpredictable all through the year, but the spring season seems to be the most unsure time of all. Time and again, down through the years, residents have removed their wood or coal heating stoves then suffered through a late spring blizzard. Modern-day residents, like the Trews, often turn off and have to relight the pilot lights on heating units as one last cold snap arrives. Old-timers know never to remove their extra coat and gloves from their pickups until after its time to start using the air conditioner. Experience learned the hard way is never forgotten. One bit of wisdom handed down from generation to generation in the Trew family is, "Spring is not here until the mesquite trees start making leaves." My father watched all his life and remembered only one time that mesquite leaves suffered from a late freeze....

Monday, November 14, 2005

NEWS ROUNDUP

Coyotes get a reprieve A humane program aimed at combating coyotes on West Marin rangeland has worked so well that lethal devices are unnecessary, officials said. Marin's novel "holistic" livestock protection program - the only one of its kind in the state and possibly the nation - doesn't involve trapping or killing predators, county agriculture officials said. Instead, a mix of guard dogs, guard llamas, electric fences, strobes, radio devices and sheep bells keep livestock losses under control. "We've struck a medium here with the non-lethal program," said longtime Tomales sheep rancher Bill Jensen. "It's a win-win deal for everybody." The $40,000-per-year Marin County Livestock Protection Program is up for a five-year renewal from the county starting in the 2006-07 budget, Marin Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen told county supervisors. Carlsen said the five-year effort has resulted in an average annual loss of 2.2 percent among the 6,700 sheep in the program, compared to a more than 5 percent average annual loss under a previous trapping arrangement....Cattlemen turn up heat on wolf regs A home-grown protest over the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s wolf plan may be headed statewide as the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association steps up pressure. A decision on the amended plan is expected in December. At their annual meeting here Nov. 5, cattlemen voted for a policy that publicizes withdrawal of private ranchland from access by hunters, and ties the action to the pending wolf plan. As amended, the plan neither allows ranchers to shoot wolves harming livestock nor seeks compensation for predation damage. Both were elements of the original plan adopted early this year. Six Baker County ranches, in protest over commission adoption of the original plan, got local publicity by declaring their property closed to hunters. Mike Colton, one of the six ranch owners, was appointed to a special committee organizing the wider protest. “I think it is probably the only thing left that we can do without costing us a bundle of money,” said Sharon Beck of Cove, co-chairwoman of OCA’s Wolf Task Force. For more than three years the group has fought for ranchers’ rights to kill wandering wolves....Groups establish bison preserve in rural Montana When conservationists Curt Freese and Sean Gerrity look out on the rolling prairies of north-central Montana, they see grasslands largely unchanged by time -- a haven for hundreds of birds and wildlife and the perfect place, they believe, for bison to roam again. "Our vision is not a small herd on a few acres, but to create that exciting, visual image that really gets people's hearts beating fast: 'Wow, look at those bison!"' said Freese, Northern Great Plains Program director for the World Wildlife Fund. That vision will begin to take shape in the next week: On Thursday, 16 buffalo will be released on a portion of the nearly 32,000 acres that have been purchased or leased as the start of the wildlife reserve the conservationists see as, one day, growing to possibly hundreds of thousands of acres on the High Plains....Fighting over roads Boulder County, Colo., resident AJ Chamberlin thought she was protecting her rights when she blocked access to a dirt track that snakes across the middle of her 28-acre mountainside property. Instead, she started a battle over the old mining road. Neighbors fought back, arguing the track was a county road under an obscure 1866 law allowing local governments to claim rights of way across federal land. They said they had jogged, birded and motorbiked there years before the Chamberlins moved in and could document public use back to the turn of the 20th century. The dispute got nasty. Someone removed the post holding Chamberlin's gate and scrawled an expletive on her no trespassing sign. She barricaded the road with an old truck. Three years later, despite appeals for help to the courts and the county, the neighbors are still divided. And no one is completely sure who owns the road. "It was a peaceful place," said neighbor Walter Plywaski. "It isn't now." Chamberlin's experience now is being used by advocates for change as an example of the problems caused by the old mining law, known as Revised Statute 2477. Thousands of tracks and paths crisscross the West, but deciding what is a road has become a tricky proposition....What to do with dead trees? On a common-sense level, it is obvious. When a forest burns, the trees are dead. So you cut them down, haul them to the sawmill, and plant new ones. Soon the blackened hillsides will be covered with healthy green trees. "Common sense says we need to restore habitats and watersheds for future generations," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resources Council, a timber industry group. "If we don't choose to harvest dead trees and restore ecosystems for future generations, we are going to be forced to cut live green trees, in many cases on foreign soils, to meet consumer demand." But many scientists say those dead trees, standing and falling to the ground over time, form the very foundation of a healthy and diverse forest that will seed itself with trees uniquely suited genetically to thrive on a specific site and support a rich diversity of fish and wildlife, even if a new forest is slow to regenerate....Editorial: Agency should not give up renegade roads to OHV users We welcome a new Forest Service plan to keep off-road vehicles on designated trails. We are encouraged by the agency's statement that these vehicles pose one of the greatest threats to forest ecosystems and to the solitude that non-motorized recreationists prefer. But we are disappointed that the plan allows OHV riders to continue to use unauthorized trails that they created by plowing their way into formerly protected and often pristine public forests. Hundreds of miles of renegade roads and trails are gouged through forests each year, damaging meadows, streambeds and other sensitive areas. That is like reversing long-standing policy and allowing people to throw litter from their cars onto a highway, simply because they've been doing it for years....Company hires extra firepower for mine proposal The Canadian company behind a project to create the nation's largest cobalt mine in the mountains of central Idaho has hired a mining lobbyist and a public relations firm to sway lawmakers, agencies and the public on its economic benefits. Vancouver, British Columbia-based Formation Capital Corp. has worked since 1993 on the project 21 miles east of Salmon. It hopes to mine cobalt worth $46 million annually, based on estimated production and today's prices. The metal is used in hybrid cars, fighter jets and gas turbines, among other things. The Gallatin Group, whose consultants include Cecil Andrus, a former Idaho governor and U.S. interior secretary, and Peter Skamser, a longtime Boise-based mining industry lobbyist, has been hired to help. Formation would extract 800 tons of rock daily from beneath public land, calling it an environmentally safe way to cut U.S. dependence on relatively unstable countries. America currently imports about 79 percent of its cobalt from restive regions, including Africa and Russia....Editorial: Meandering roadless policy Operating under new federal guidelines, Colorado has crafted a productive way to help decide where or whether to allow roads in national forest roadless areas. We have high confidence in the state process, but it is layered by reviews in Washington that could end up overriding local recommendations. For 30 years, the U.S. Forest Service has struggled with the future of 58 million acres nationwide that haven't been officially designated as wilderness and yet haven't been carved up by roads. President Clinton tried to settle things by declaring that no more roads could be built in roadless areas, but a series of lawsuits left his rule in limbo. The Bush administration's response was to ask each state to make specific roadless recommendations - but even that drew fire....Support Growing For Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act Says Oregon Congressman The Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget today testified in support of the bipartisan Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act's common sense approach to land management during a legislative hearing in the Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Chief Dale Bosworth and Assistant Secretary Lynn Scarlett told Walden that their agencies support H.R. 4200, which would give federal land managers the ability to more quickly address recovery of national forestlands damaged by a catastrophic event - such as fire, ice storms, windstorms or hurricanes - if expedited action is necessary for the health and restoration of the forest. "We believe H.R. 4200 would provide some innovative authorities to improve the ability of the Secretary to promptly implement recovery treatments in response to catastrophic events affecting federal lands...The Department strongly supports the goals of the legislation and its intent to get recovery actions accomplished promptly while focusing on maintaining sound environmental decision-making and public involvement," Chief Bosworth told members of the Subcommittee.... Feds auction off parcels Roughly 72,000 acres of public land just leased for oil and gas development include thousands of acres that were once proposed as federal wilderness and home to rare plants. The Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday included 23,183 acres in the South Shale Ridge area near DeBeque, about 210 miles west of Denver and in one of the state's hot spots for natural gas drilling. In 1999, during the Clinton administration, the BLM said the area, with more than 40 miles of twisting arroyos and multicolored ridges, had wilderness characteristics, a step toward recommending that Congress declare it a federal wilderness area. BLM spokeswoman Theresa Sauer said Friday that a formal protest of leasing South Shale Ridge has been filed. The issue can ultimately be appealed to an Interior Department appeals board. No lease is issued until the matter is resolved....Days after release, black-footed ferret dies José, a rare black-footed ferret bred at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and released into the wild in northwestern Colorado in late October, was killed by a coyote or badger three days after his release. He was 4 months old. José’s release was featured in a Gazette story about the species’ future on Oct. 30. Biologists tracked José and 10 other ferrets with radio collars the size of a wristwatch. For two days, signals showed the 2-pound endangered prairie hunter living in prairie dog dens in the Wolf Creek release area near Massadona. Then on the third day, radio signals led biologists to what was likely José’s last stand. “We found only his radio transmitter, and it was all chewed up,” said Brian Holmes, a Bureau of Land Management biologist who oversees the black-footed ferret reintroduction in Wolf Creek....A Grizzly Mystery in Montana Who's killing the great bears of Montana? Twenty-one grizzlies have been illegally killed in northwestern Montana in the past two years. This is a record pace for poaching since the bears were listed 30 years ago as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to officials at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The rising death toll alarms federal law enforcement officials, as well as government biologists. The increase in grizzly killing is concentrated in a rapidly growing but culturally disjointed corner of the West. Affluent outsiders have overrun Flathead County in the past 15 years, fueling a population growth of 37 percent and creating a service-based economy that needs grizzlies as symbolic emblems of an ecologically friendly Western lifestyle. Some longtime residents, though, are seething over decades of decline in logging and mining. They see protection of the bears as part of a plan that is closing roads in federal forests and that is marginalizing their lives....Florida home builders sue wildlife service Florida home builders sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying protections for some species listed as endangered by the federal government are adding to soaring home prices. Some species that no longer require protection linger on the endangered species list because the Fish and Wildlife Service fails to review their progress every five years, as mandated by the Endangered Species Act, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation. The California-based property rights group filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Orlando on behalf of the Florida Home Builders Association. The lawsuit calls for federal reviews of 90 out of about 100 species listed in Florida as endangered or threatened, including the Eastern indigo snake, the Everglades snail kite and the wood stork....Coalition files new petition for Mono Basin sage grouse A coalition of environmental groups has renewed efforts to impose federal protection for a small population of sage grouse found along the eastern Sierra in Nevada and California. The petition, prepared and submitted by the Stanford Law School Environmental Law Clinic for the groups, argues that Mono Basin sage grouse are "genetically distinct" from other sage grouse populations and in danger of extinction. Similar arguments were rejected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service two years ago when the federal agency said more study was needed to determine if the Mono Basin birds were unique and in peril. But the environmental groups involved in the latest petition say science has since proved otherwise....Gas drillers use mats to protect plants A major Canadian energy company is taking extra steps to protect Wyoming's fragile landscape while drilling for the natural gas the lies beneath it. EnCana Corp. is about to start putting down wooden mats to keep its drilling operations from destroying vegetation. EnCana already uses wooden planks to keep its equipment from sinking into muskeg in its Canadian drilling operations. Now, for the first time in the arid West, the company will be using the wooden mats to try to save crucial wildlife habitat. A pilot project using the oak mats - which look like giant Lincoln Logs - is about to get underway in the Jonah gas field in western Wyoming. If successful, EnCana will consider using the mats in other oil and gas fields around the West. "What this is really about is reducing the size of our footprint on these fields," said Jeff Johnson, EnCana's team leader in the Jonah Field. "We're very hopeful that mat drilling is going to be one of the tools that will do that." The company plans to lay down about two to three acres of wooden mats for well pads and their connecting roadways in the 23,500-acre field sometime this month....Conservationists petition for increased livestock grazing fee The federal government has been losing money for years on livestock grazing on public lands, and now six conservation groups, backed up by a new government study, say it's time to raise the fees. But raising monthly grazing fees to the $12.26 per animal unit mentioned in the Government Accountability Office report would end the cattle business in this area, said rancher Brent Money of Palmyra. "When all the costs are figured in, it costs us a lot more than the $1.79" charged for grazing federal lands, said Money, who is secretary for the 40-member Spanish Fork Grazing Co. LLC. The Center for Biological Diversity, representing five other environmental and conservation groups, has petitioned the secretaries of the interior and agriculture to change grazing fee regulations to reflect fair market value of government grass. The request comes after the release of a September report by the GAO that notes livestock grazing fees charged by federal agencies are woefully short of what it costs those agencies to manage their grazing programs. The federal government manages livestock grazing on 235 million acres of public lands, more than 98 percent of it managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In 2004, federal agencies spent more than $144 million on grazing management, while they took in only about $21 million in grazing fees....Westerners are changing the way they see animals, study shows More and more Westerners are seeing the fish, fowl and wild animals around them as something to cherish rather than something to eat. A Colorado State University study of values concerning wildlife in 19 western states indicates a major shift from traditional beliefs that "wildlife is mainly for human use" toward one in which animals should be protected as "part of our extended family." The 12,673 people who answered the poll shed light on why wildlife issues are so controversial and why wildlife agencies are struggling to accommodate so many different views.... Bush signs horse slaughter ban into law President Bush signed into law Thursday an agriculture spending bill that includes an eight-month ban on federal funding for U.S. meat inspectors to monitor horse slaughter. The measure essentially prohibits the killing of horses at the nation's three slaughterhouses, which export the meat to Europe and Asia. The issue has pitted animal protection advocates who are outraged over the fact that horses are slaughtered for food against cattle ranchers and other horse owners who wonder what to do with old and injured workhorses. The eight-month moratorium set to start in March was a compromise measure between friends and foes of horse slaughter. Possible loophole? But advocates on both sides of the issue are looking at a possible loophole in the law that could allow horse slaughterhouses to pay for their own meat inspection, enabling them to continue their operations....Cowboy Church shucks pomp for boots, bales, guts of the gospel Taylor Diehl set her cowboy hat carefully aside and stepped, fully dressed, into the shining metal horse trough. The 8-year-old sat back, plugged her nose and took the plunge, staying under just long enough for the warm water to still - long enough to be reborn. In most other churches, the congregation would sit quietly, reverently, showing respect and reserved dignity as the rite of baptism was sanctified. But not here. Not in the house of the trough. Here the crowd hoots, hollers, stomps hard-heeled boots against a well-worn floor, whistles, claps and cuts loose with a roof-raising "yeeeehaaw" or two. "This is Cowboy Church," said Robyn Redpath. "It's what you might call a user-friendly church, for people who absolutely would not set foot in a traditional church building. It's church for the rest of us." Tonight, "the rest of us" consists mostly of ranchers and farmers, saddle makers and horse trainers. They've come straight in from deer hunting, still sporting bright orange. They wear Wranglers and flannel, NASCAR T-shirts, stiff-brimmed cowboy hats, grimy ball caps with bent bills.... Column: The last ranch There's really not much to say about the last cattle drive, except that it's over and it happened on what was one of Pitkin County's few remaining cattle outfits, just recently sold. Someone should have taken pictures to memorialize the final chapter, but such documentation would have kept us from spending the next 20 years wondering if maybe there'll be one more long drive on the ghost of the old Fender spread. No one buys property around here to ranch seriously, no matter what they may say. Like dead American Indians of old, swaying in trees, sold ranches lie quietly by while their spirits drift away, never to reappear. New owners become not ranchers, but instead large landowners, unspecified quantities, people to look out for because you can pretty well bet they'll screw up the view plane in one direction or another. Conservation easements are tools of and by landowners, so it's never clear if there is any real benefit to the public. If a conservation group gets involved, you can bet there's going to be some subdivision of land to try to foot the bill. And let's not forget, conservation easement is more correctly spelled "open space" rather than "ranch," a huge difference. Pitkin County officials say they want to preserve agriculture in the county, but they never seem to back up their tired rhetoric.... This cowboy's story deserves a place in history News flash for everyone now fascinated with the history of White Settlement: You overlooked one early settler. He saw the Alamo after the fall and Virginia after the Confederate surrender. Until his death at 111, he carried a dime given to him by Sam Houston. One more thing. He was a black American freed from slavery. Of all the stories that have turned up while White Settlement voters were reaffirming their city's name, the most interesting must be the tale of John Hickman, who loyally served a Confederate officer during the Civil War and came back to Texas to ride as a cowboy on the great cattle drives. Hickman retold his stories in 1930 as a special guest at the State Fair of Texas. He had lived in the then-rural White Settlement community since 1895....For Jim Brooks, it's more than riding and roping Jim Brooks got introduced to the cowboy life with a face full of dirt. It was 1961 and Brooks had just arrived in South Dakota from his Pennsylvania home. His cousin, who was working on the Circle M Ranch, said he might be able to get Brooks a job. But it was a rodeo weekend when Brooks got there and before he knew it, he'd been talked into riding a bronco. "I'll never forget his name," says Brooks. "It was Scrap Iron." Brooks, 59, who now lives in Perris, had ridden plenty of horses. He even knew how to drive a team. But he'd never been on a bucking horse before. And it showed. "He just snapped me down on the ground," he says. "People laughed, of course, because they announced that I was from Pennsylvania. The announcer said, 'Welcome, Jimmy Brooks. Welcome to the West.' " The rude initiation failed to deter Brooks. He had decided at an early age that he was going to be a cowboy, and one hard, humbling ride wasn't going to shake his resolve....